Afro-Arabs

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Afro-Arabs

عرب أفارقة
A group of folk singers and dancers outside a barasti house in Al Satwa, Dubai.
Regions with significant populations
Gulf States · Levant · Yemen · East Africa · Mauritania · Sahel · North Africa
Saudi Arabia	3,600,000[1]
Yemen	3,500,000[2]
Iraq	1,500,000–2,000,000[3]
Mauritania	1,500,000[citation needed]
Jordan	60,000[4]
Languages
Majority: Arabic Minority: Teda · Hausa · Fula · Swahili · Comorian · Wolof
Religion
Majority: Islam Minority: Traditional
Related ethnic groups
Ethnic groups of Africa Afro-Saudis · Afro-Palestinians · Afro-Jordanians · Al-Muhamashīn · Afro-Iraqis · Afro-Syrians · Afro-Omanis · Afro-Emiratis

Afro-Arabs, African Arabs, or Black Arabs are Arabs who have predominantly or total Sub-Saharan African ancestry. These include primarily minority groups in the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, Iraq, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. The term may also refer to various Arab groups in certain African regions.^[5]

From the 7th century onward Muslim communities were established along the coast of Eritrea and Somalia, subsequently spreading inland. The Arab slave trade, which began in pre-Islamic times but reached its height between 650 AD and 1900 AD, transported millions of African people from the Nile Valley, the Horn of Africa, and the eastern African coast across the Red Sea to Arabia. Millions more were taken from sub-Saharan Africa across the Sahara as part of the trans-Saharan slave trade.^[6]

By around the first millennium AD, Persian traders established trading towns on what is now called the Swahili Coast,^[7][8]

The Portuguese conquered these trading centers after the discovery of the Cape Road. From the 1700s to the early 1800s, Muslim forces of the Omani empire re-seized these market towns, mainly on the islands of Pemba and Zanzibar. In these territories, Arabs from Yemen and Oman settled alongside the local "African" populations, thereby spreading Islam and establishing Afro-Arab communities.^[9] The Niger-Congo Swahili language and culture largely evolved through these contacts between Arabs and the native Bantu population.^[10]

In North Africa, Arabs historically had close connections to native continental Africans.

In the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, descendants of people from the Swahili Coast perform traditional Liwa and Fann at-Tanbura music and dance,^[11] and the mizmar is also played by Afro-Arabs in the Tihamah and Hejaz.^{[citation needed]}

In addition, Stambali of Tunisia^[12] and Gnawa music of Morocco^[13] are both ritual music and dances that in part trace their origins to West African musical styles.

• Bilal ibn Rabah, early Muslim and Companion of Muhammad
• Umm Ayman, early Muslim and Companion of Muhammad
• Ayman ibn Ubayd, early Muslim and Companion of Muhammad
• Usama ibn Zayd, early Muslim and Companion of Muhammad
• Sumayyah bint Khabbat, early Muslim and Companion of Muhammad
• Wahshi ibn Harb, early Muslim and Companion of Muhammad
• Rasad, concubine of al-Zahir li-I'zaz Din Allah
• al-Mustansir Billah, Fatimid caliph
• Turki bin Said, Sultan of Oman
• Faisal bin Turki, Sultan of Muscat and Oman, Sultan of Oman
• Taimur bin Feisal, Sultan of Oman
• Barghash bin Said of Zanzibar, Sultan of Zanzibar
• Ali bin Said of Zanzibar, Sultan of Zanzibar
• Ali bin Hamud of Zanzibar, Sultan of Zanzibar
• Jamshid bin Abdullah of Zanzibar, last Sultan of Zanzibar
• Colette Dalal Tchantcho, Kuwaiti-Cameroonian actor
• Tippu Tip, Afro-Omani trader and explorer
• Sefu bin Hamid, Zanzibari slave trader
• Saad Al-Salim Al-Sabah, Emir of Kuwait
• Bandar bin Sultan, Saudi Prince
• Reema bint Bandar Al Saud, Saudi Princess
• Faisal bin Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud, Saudi Prince
• Khalid bin Bandar Al Saud (born 1977), Saudi Prince
• Baraka Al Yamaniyah, concubine of King Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia
• Muqrin bin Abdulaziz, Saudi Prince
• Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi, Saudi Businessman
• Etab, Saudi singer
• Anwar Sadat, Egyptian politician
• Majed Abdullah, Saudi footballer
• Salem Al-Dawsari, Saudi footballer
• Mohamed Al-Deayea, Saudi footballer
• Ali Al-Habsi, Omani footballer
• Shikabala, Egyptian footballer
• Khalid Eisa, Emirati footballer
• Chahine van Bohemen, Dutch-Moroccan footballer
• Almoez Ali, Qatari footballer
• Fahad Al-Abdulrahman, Qatari footballer

• Al-Akhdam
• Afro-Iranians
• Afro-Turks
• Arab slave trade
• Black Guard
• Gnawa
• Haratin
• Shirazi people
• Swahili people
• Zanj

• Hinde, Sidney Langford (1897). The Fall of the Congo Arabs. London: Methuen & Co.
• Mazrui, Alamin M.; Mutunga, Willy, eds. (2004). Debating the African Condition: Race, gender, and culture conflict (illustrated ed.). Africa World Press. ISBN 9781592211456.
• Mazrui, Ali A. (2014). The Politics of Gender and the Culture of Sexuality: Western, Islamic, and African Perspectives. University Press of America. ISBN 9780761864035.

• Arab Slave Trade Afo-Arab relations and the Arab Slave Trade
• "Black Africans in (Arab) West Asia" - a cited ColorQ.org essay
• Prof. Helmi Sharawy, Arab Culture and African Culture: ambiguous relations Archived 2021-07-24 at the Wayback Machine, paper extracted from the book The Dialogue between the Arab culture and other cultures', Arab League, Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organisation (ALECSO), Tunis, 1999.
• Resolution on Afro-arab Co-operation of The Council of Ministers of the Organization of African Unity, 23, February 23–28, 1987.
• African Union/league of Arab States Inter-secretariat Consultative Meeting On Afro-arab Cooperation, Addis Ababa: 10–12 May 2005.
• Maho M. Sebiane, « Le statut socio-économique de la pratique musicale aux Émirats arabes unis : la tradition du leiwah à Dubai », Chroniques yéménites, 14, 2007.[1]^{[permanent dead link]}.
• Afro-Arabian origins of the Early Yemenites and their Conquest and Settlement of Spain